Some Thousand Years Later
by Christopher Kimson
Summary: Amelia was just grabbing some coffee when World War III broke out. Now follow her story as she survives the apocalypse, and ends up in the land of Ooo a thousand years into the future, thanks to a military program and a little luck.
1. Chapter 1

Smash 11, you have traffic 12 o'clock, less than five miles. Looks like a Rusky bomber formation descending to one four thousand.

.

.

Smash 11: Copy. Smash is radar contact tally-ho.

Giant Killer : Smash 11, Roger.

Smash 11: Copy, stay up there, that bomber looks like it's carrying a nuclear payload.

Smash 12: Let's drop this motherfucker

Smash 11: I'm showing him, descending now.

Smash 12: And he's bulls-eye one-one-six, seventy-six now, twenty thousand, I'm a mile and a half in trail.

Smash 11: Get my tally for the day.

Smash 11: Mile in trail closing, tally-ho Mig.

Smash 11: Twenty five hundred feet back in the clouds still- Whoa! I got missile lock on me!

Smash 12: Break left, break left!

Smash 11: I'm trying damnit!

Smash 11, or Amelia Walker, as would be the name of the pilot with the designated call sign Smash 11, cusses out a storm of profanity as she violently swings her F-15 into sharp dive, cursing the idiots who started WWIII, and by extent the whole world over.

The shitshow that was the war had started about two years ago, on August 16, 2035, the day that officially ruined her somewhat epic life. Amelia had been off base grabbing a cup of joe when Los Angeles went up in smoke. Big, radioactive smoke. North Korea, after decades of blustering, has finally done the unimaginable. Threatened by a coalition of South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, India, and many other smaller Asian countries, who have been increasingly hemming in Chinese and North Korean interests, and by a crumbling economy, has lashed out in a massive lightning strike. Within hours, South Korea's capital was reduced to rubble, and along the DMZ, millions of soldiers poured into the nation. Missiles smashed into Japanese soil, and infiltrators within the U.S set off the aforementioned dirty bomb within the heart of Los Angeles City.

It snowballed from there, China backing North Korea with arms supplies, then soldiers. After decades of uneasy peace, Chinese, Korean, and American blood once again soaked the soils of Asia. Russia, seeing an opportunity, created an unholy alliance with the Chinese, right after the Chinese had crippled the eastern part of Europe with cyberwarfare, shutting down power grids and communications en masse. The same was attempted on America, but government had prepared for such an attack and had bolstered their electronic defenses. But it wasn't enough. Thousands died as automatic trains, reprogrammed by viruses, smashed into each other, and power fluctuated as EdCon workers struggled to contain the sabotage. Nuclear reactors went critical nationwide. But America gave as good as it got.

In order to prevent a nuclear apocalypse from breaking out within the first few hours, the U.S activated a top secret virus that had been dormant within Chinese and Russian missile silos, cripping the majority of their nuclear ICBMs. But the virus did it's job too well, and soon it spread all over the world, knocking out America's own capabilities to use rockets to deliver its nuclear warheads.

It took less than a month for the whole world to go to war again, and due to the virus no one country was able to obliterate each other in the opening shots. But then they got around that problem by simply using conventional warplanes to deliver its nuclear payload instead. That meant costly bombing missions, the likes that haven't been seen since the closing days of WWII. But instead of rickety prop driven bombers dropping what amounted to TNT stuffed in a metal shell casing, high tech bombers escorted by hundreds of fighter jets would soar through the skies to drop a much deadlier payload.

And it was Amelia's job to shoot every single one of these fuckers down. She pulls up, narrowly dodging the sidewinder fired at her, before violently bleeding off speed to get behind the offending Mig. Seconds later, the world was minus one Russian jet. No chute had deployed.

Smash 12: Yeehaw! Nice shot Smash 11!

Amelia jerks to the left again, determined to down the enemy bomber before it turned another city into a radioactive crater. But her efforts were thwarted again and again by more enemy interceptors.

Smash 12: Amelia, that bomber is getting too close to the city!

Amelia: I know, I know! Why aren't you trying to shoot the damn thing down!

Smash 12: Cause I'm covering your fat ass! Go for it!

 _Motherfrickinbeinallthingsthatareholypleaselockthisshot._ Amelia thinks in her head as she lines up on the bomber. Her crosshairs settle onto the engine and turn red with a monotone _eeeeeeeeeeeeee._

"Yes! Smash 11! Fox 2!" she crows out. As the sidewinder speeds off to intercept the bomber, she notices dozens of other missiles joining her's as well. Soon she loses track of her own, and the bomber explodes as multiple hits knock it out of the sky. The enemy fighters are routed, and Amelia turns her jet back to base, the mission accomplished.

Smash 12: Nice job Smash 11, that's like what, you're twenty second kill? Another city saved, thanks to you!

 _Yeah, but for how long?_ She thinks. How many are gone already? Too damn many, she morosely thinks to herself. Her own home city, Boston, had been reduced to glass. Manhattan and Seattle were the last bastions of the American people, the latter she just saved from annihilation. Well, unless you count the smaller cities as well, but most of the major ones were wiped off the map in the first year of the war. And a nuclear winter has settled all over the globe, killing off most of the plant life, and plunging the world into a mini ice age. She snorts in derision as she lands her F-15 onto the runway. Twenty one years of age, and her life was was going to be cut short by a nuke, if a particularly lucky missile doesn't get to her first.

The rest of the day passes by in a blur. Most of her family or former friends had died earlier in combat or got turned into fine ash, so she lounges around the base's cafeteria or wasted time getting, well, wasted, in her room.

Okay, maybe not that wasted, but damnit it's the apocalypse, and nobody was gonna keep her away from a good bottle of Jack, especially when those were short supply nowadays. Any acquaintances she might have had in her brief time on base were off pulling double duty, or helping out the local military in keeping civil order. Seattle was overcrowded with refugees, and supplies were bound to run low soon. Riots were guaranteed. As she caresses the bottle of liquor like it's the only thing keeping her alive, she wonders how long it was going to take for this base to get hit. Not much longer, she muses depressingly. As the numbing effect of her drink and her exhaustion set in, she allows herself to wonder about the future of the human race, none of them in a good light. The bottle slips from her hand as she passes out on the table top.

.

.

.

Sounds. The first thing to register in her sleepy mind.

"-ing report to room B1 in ten minutes. Staff Sergeant Amelia Walker, please report to room B1 in ten minutes." the intercom blares into her room.

"Urgh" is all she manages as she picks herself off the floor and heads to the bathroom to clean herself up. Hair, check. Alcohol breath, cleaned out with toothpaste, uniform straightened. Nothing could be done about the bags hanging under her eyes though, but they'll understand. It's been more then trying times for all of them nowadays. As she heads down the complex to the meeting room, she notices a few of her fellow pilots heading in the same direction, their uniforms also cleaned out. One of them notices Amelia and heads over to her. Amelia sighs inwardly.

"So you got the message as well?" he asks.

"Yeah Brian, I got it as well." she replies. Brian was practically a kid, somebody they probably just picked up out of a flight academy to fill in the depleted ranks of the air force. And she thinks that he has some sort of infatuation with her. Then again, being one of the few female pilots on base AND a confirmed ace, most men would try and get into her pants. And she just might as well, with the world ending and all. Brian walks nervously in a slightly oversized uniform, brown hair cut to regulation and standing at barely over five and a half feet, he looked more like he belonged back in some high school then in what's left of America's air force. Can't be choosy though, not these days anyways.

"I didn't get the message." he says. Amelia looks at him questioningly.

"Really?"

"Yeah, only a few got the call apparently. Rumor has it it's for a new top secret program to beat the Russians and Chinese. Win this war. Then we can fix what's left of our planet before we blow each other up to extinction." he looks at her. "They called you down probably cuz you got so many kills, your one of the best we've got."

"I don't think I'm that good." she replies. Brian just shakes his head.

"If that were true, they wouldn't be calling you down with all the other high profile aces as well. Just whatever it is, I do hope it helps our side. It's only a matter of time before we let one slip through our defences, and then, well…" his eyes take a dejected look. America's youth, reduced to thinking that their future is over, that they are all going to die. It's a sad, depressing thought.

"Hey, I'm sure it's something that will help us win this war, so chin up, we'll get through this, I promise." Brian looks up to her, a little life creeping back into his eyes.

"Thanks, and good luck." he says as he peels off into a different hallway. As she watches the teen disappear into the crowd, a very familiar voice suddenly catches her attention.

"You make a pretty good motivator when you're not drinking yourself into oblivion."

Amelia turns her head to see a tall blonde male in a jumpsuit walking just behind her.

"David?"

The man holds open his arms in reply, a lopsided grin on his face.

"Ohmygodisactuallyyou!" Amelia runs over to him. "I thought you were busy pulling guard duty!" It was such a relief to see a friend in times like these. A really, intimate friend. _Doesn't mean anything, we're just good friends, annnd we're hugging._ Amelia thinks as she clings tightly to David.

"I got recalled back to base for this thing. Must be pretty important."

"Yeah no kidding." Amelia says, eyeing the other high profile base personnel heading to the room. "It's something big."

"That's what she said."

"Shut up."

David just laughs good naturedly as they enter the conference room. The laughter ends abruptly. Amelia turns her gaze to see why. And then her face became one of seriousness as well.

In front of them, standing in the back of the room was the base commander, and all the higher ranking officers that were on site. But that wasn't even the shocker. Seated at the head of the table was a man who had the look of the world resting on his entire shoulders, and knowing that he was failing. Built well, with graying short hair, and a face that had a strong jaw with tired, blue eyes, was the President of the United States, and leader of what was left of the free world. Around him were leaders from other nations, and several representatives from the remaining NATO allies.

The President motions to the empty chairs.

"Please, take a seat."

As they settle in he continues, "I'm sure you're wondering as to why I've brought you here."

Nods all around. He sighs. "What is said in this room is highly confidential. You will not leak what is said here. Or there will be, consequences."

Consequences. In this world, that means execution without trial. Well, there is a trial, but its usually just for show, and for the public to keep their faith in a "fair" government, no matter the situation at hand. In reality the government doesn't have such luxuries, and even the trials themselves are speedy and done as quickly as possible in order to spend more time on more urgent matters. The President motions to one of his generals. Amelia reads the name off of the tag on the man's uniform. General Metcalf, supreme commander of the allied forces. The smartboard in the back is turned on, a slide show started. And on the screen the words, "Ark of Humanity Initiative," and "Project Halo."

"Gentlemen, and women," Metcalf nods to Amelia, "we lost Manhattan." If the pilots had been normal people, gasps and shocked looks would have been in order. But still, their professional faces remain, although Amelia reels inwardly from the news.

 _We're the last? We're the last, and soon the Russians and Chinese will overrun this city too._ The General brought up live footage from Manhattan covered in a massive mushroom cloud. "We've done everything we've can, for two long bloody years we've been at it, and Russia and China are still on top, even when we've nuked all their cities to hell and back. As soon as our own virus turned on us, this war turned into one of attrition, and we're losing. That doesn't mean they will come out of this unscathed, oh no, we've given as good as we've got and for every city nuked, we threw one right back at em. But we're running low on resources, manpower, and nuclear options. We've lost our ability to re-build our air force, while they still have a few plants up and running, deep in the heart of their country. Without our air force we will have no ability to launch nuclear counter strikes at them. But we will NOT lose this war." he growls out. He switches to another slide with a picture of schematic of a, massive bomb? Amelia suddenly has a bad feeling about the direction this briefing was taking.

"Welcome to the Ark of Humanity and Halo initiative. The world as we know it has already been irreparably damaged beyond belief, and yet more bombs fall every day. At this continued rate, we will lose America, and our land forces will be utterly helpless to stop the horde that will invade our country." An occupation by a desperate, starving army? Everybody heard about the brutality that was going down in what's left of Europe. Death was a better fate than what an "Occupation" would entail.

"But that's not even the biggest worry for us." He said ominously. Another slide is shown, satellite images of Russian military bases.

"The Russians have been re-building and rearming ICBMs. At this rate they will have enough hit every single remaining holdout here in America, and then some. This continent will soon become the land of glass in approximately a week."

 _It's over then. We've lost._

"But not if we hit them first." Metcalf says. Another slide is shown, the image of the big, conventional looking bomb is shown. Before the pilots had a chance to wonder what it was, Metcalf answered their questions before they even voiced them.

"This weapon is the culmination of our biological and nuclear research from Project Halo. The mother of all nuclear weaponry. We've nicknamed it the Mushroom Bomb."

Amelia leans forward a bit, was this the top secret weapon rumored to win the war?

"If we do nothing, on our current trajectory we will lose within the next week, wiped out in nuclear fire, and humanity will perish in the smothering nuclear winter. But if we can pull a final push together, and deliver the bomb over their ICBM facility" he says as he points to the target on a map, "Then we will prevent our own continent from being annihilated, while decimating theirs and their ability to ever hurt us again."

The pilots were ecstatic. _So it's actually true, we've got a weapon that will actually win us the war._

"Ahem." the General said to silence the astonished mutterings. "This weapon has one major downside to it however." Silence. Nervously, he tapped his fingers against his sides.

"Due to the unknown potential yield of this weapon, without taking precautions, humanity may not survive the dropping of this bomb. Those down in the Alamo research center have estimated the power to be staggering." He leans forward onto the desk. "We're talking doomsday yield here gentlemen. Not dozens of megatons. Not even hundreds. The number is somewhere in the thousands."

Now the gasps and shocked looks came. One pilot cried out in protest.

"You can't deploy this! It's an atrocity!"

"And what, America will still end up getting wiped off the face of the Earth anyways! None of conventional nukes are powerful enough to deliver the knockout punch to the Russians and Chinese!" Metcalf takes in a deep breath. "The world is already doomed people. This planet's ability to sustain life has been nuked to hell and back, so much so that life may not return for the next few hundred years. By destroying them first, we will have ensured the survival of our own continent, and the chance to restart our society in the future."

 _Restart society? What?_ Amelia was confused and torn, her mind reeling from conflicting emotions, her sworn duty to the nation against her moral compass. If they were to drop the bomb, they win the war, but doom most of humanity. If they don't, the Russians will nuke all of America, and still doom humanity, albeit to a slower and more painful death.

"But we have taken precautions. We prepared for this eventual outcome, and now I present to you our ultimate goal." A hologram activates, depicting the same survival bunker from before. Amelia studies the depiction, noting that it was huge, enough for a few hundred people or so, decked out with even an underground hangar and airfield. And not even that, enough food and water to last several decades, every imaginable facility you can think of to survive the apocalypse, but what really captured their attention were the long hallways filled with human sized pods. The words Cryogenics floated above the depiction, an enrapturing display of the promise of an actual future.

"Welcome to the Ark of Humanity Initiative. And you all have been chosen for the program."


	2. Chapter 2: The End of The World

"We can be Heroes, just for one day…"

There's something out of place. Fingers move to adjust the tunes for the guitar. Take a deep breath. Exhale.

"We can be us, just for one day…"

It's been a few days since that fateful meeting, and Amelia knows the clock is ticking. A knocking at her door interrupts her musing. Sighing, Amelia carefully sets her guitar down.

"Come in."

The door creaks open, a familiar blonde haired face pops in through the opening.

"Ya busy?" David asks.

"Nah, I'm just chilling here with my guitar." Amelia replies.

"Oh cool, what kinda songs do you play?" He asks as he navigated his way around the table. Finding a chair he plops down onto it. Amelia picks up the guitar again and strums on it a few times.

"Lots of different kinds, mostly David Bowie. I find his music to be something I can play to."

"Oh, I uh, think I can try that out?" David motions toward the guitar.

"Go ahead, but if you drop it, nobody's gonna find your body."

"Pshhh, as if." He chuckles lightly. As he (badly) strums the instrument, he turns to face Amelia.

"Now it's time for me to serenade you with love songs." He dramatically exclaims. Amelia punches his arm lightly and grabs her guitar back. "Alright, lover boy, give that back to somebody who can actually play something." David laughs.

"Hey, if the world wasn't ending right now, I would totally spend more of my time wearing out my fingers on a guitar to impress you."

"Yeah right, the only things you'll be wearing your fingers out on will be the flight stick."

David puts on a hurt look. Amelia's heart does an involuntary flip at the expression, even though she knows he was totally faking it.

"That's mean 'Am, you know I love to fly."

"We all love to fly, that's why we signed up ya dingus."

"Yeah, too bad we won't get to fly for much longer…"

Silence reigned for the next several seconds.

"I can't believe we've been driven to this point."

David looks at Amelia.

"You talking about the Initiative?"

Amelia nods her head. "This stuff is messed up beyond belief. We don't do anything, and we're doomed to nuclear annihilation. When we do drop the bomb, we still doom ourselves to the same fate. The only difference is that instead of the world being ruled by the Russians and Chinese, the world won't be run by anybody for a long, long time.

"But we've got the Ark Initiative down in the Rockies." David says.

Amelia sighs, a heavy guilt ridden breath out. "I know, but we're basically ditching the people of America. I know, I know, not enough space, but… but still, I just wish we didn't have to do this." Silence once again. David leans over to Amelia, which she then promptly buries herself into.

"Humanity fucked up." She whispers.

"Yeah, but at least we get another chance, another way to get this right." David responds. He holds Amelia's head in his hands, savoring the quiet moment. Amelia wonders if she should be bothered by this. She ignores that thought, and relaxes, wishing that the moment moment could last for much longer. But the way it ended was something she did not expect at all.

The emergency lights go off, and an alarm sounds off, startling the pair. When they open the door, a cacophony of noise assaults their ears. There were soldiers and pilots running down the hallways, some of them hastily shoving on uniforms and equipment. The P.A system goes off.  
" **Attention all personnel, this is a mandatory evacuation order. Attention all personnel, this is a mandatory evacuation order. Please follow procedure and vacate to the nearest evac point. Pilots, report to your squadron leaders immediately. You will be briefed en route."**

"What is going on?!" Amelia yells as they run down the hallway.

"I have no clue! I'll see you the skies though!" David yells out as he runs off and disappears into the crowd to find his squadron. Amelia only managed to mouth out half a goodbye before she too was swallowed up by the crowd as well. She runs to her designated hangar and spots her F-15 waiting for her, the cockpit open and the flight mechanics scurrying off to quickly prep more fighters for takeoff. She hops in and seals both the canopy and her helmet. Engines on, she taxis herself onto the runway.

As she coasts along, something catches her eye. A large contingent of soldiers to her right could be seen surrounding a B-1B Lancer bomber. And she only caught a glimpse of it but before a C-130 blocked off her sight she was absolutely sure that the large object they had been loading into the bomb bay was The Mushroom Bomb. Suddenly her headset squawks loudly, interrupting her thoughts. The comms are filled with commotion, the pilots of fighters and cargo planes, attack and transport helicopters jockeying for airspace, so she mentally tunes them out, quietly humming to David Bowie's "Heroes." Eyes roamed the HUD as a readout began filling up her screen. Hoping for something to make sense she quickly reads the test scrolling down her view. But the only thing it read out to her was death.

 **Multiple Russian ICBM launches have been detected. They have attacked earlier than anticipated. 15 minutes until impact and detonation. Proceed to rendezvous point** **44 point 2643° north by 109 point 7870° west of this position.**

" **Smash 11, you are cleared for takeoff."** Amelia gunned her engines as soon as she got the confirmation, determined to put as much space between her and the doomed airbase. To her right, a helicopter collides with another plane and they both go down, the explosions sending more panic throughout the cluttered airspace. She ducks her jet under a passing cargo plane, before setting her jet for the south, and poured on the afterburners. As she does so however, her flight commander pulls their attention away to point out that only about a dozen fighters, helicopters and a military transport cargo plane were headed in the same direction.

"Those poor devils, they don't realize the suicide mission they've just embarked on…" She hears over her radio. As their little posse heads south, the rest of the hundreds of bombers and fighter craft were seen clumping up in a massive formation and flying west, over the Pacific, to Russia.

"Their going to deliver the Mushroom Bomb…" Amelia whispers.

"What was that Amelia?" David asks over the comms. Amelia takes a moment to answer.

"Nothing."

 _Brian is probably on that mission right now, unknowingly sacrificing himself, along with thousands of others, to drop what will be the most powerful and yet sickening ordinance in human history. What is he thinking right now? What have they told him?_

The HUD flashes more text.

 **Five Minutes Until Impact**

And as Amelia watched them disappear over the horizon, she swore on that day to make sure that their sacrifice was not in vain. She and the others will restart humanity, and perhaps, just maybe, lead the future into something that would be worth such a sacrifice.

 **30 Seconds Until Impact**

"I don't think we're gonna make it!" Panics a nearby pilot.

"Hold it together!" yells out her leader. "We just cleared the immediate blast zone, just gotta outrun the shock wave! Pour it on people!"

Amelia grits teeth, and pointedly ignores the overheat gauge as she mentally wills her fighter to fly faster.

 **10 Seconds Until Impact**

"Brace yourselves!" Amelia doesn't know who yelled it, too busy pushing her aircraft to it's limits and beyond. Suddenly, a white hot streak pierces the cloud cover behind them, carving a bright line through the sky as it careened towards the city. But even as death incarnate hurtled towards her, her mind was focused on a single thought.

 **3 Seconds Until Impact**

She will survive this.

 **1 Second Until Impact**

She will make their sacrifices worth it.

 **0 Seconds Until Impact**

Her visors instantly darkened as the nuclear warhead detonated behind them, and the land below was bathed a harsh, bright light. Amelia held back tears of frustration as they flew south into the horizon.

"Here's comes the shockwave, brace for impact!" She heard David yell over the comm. Seconds later a massive wall of compressed air hits her fighter, shaking Amelia inside her cockpit as if she were in a washing machine. But just when they had thought they had made it, all her electronics go dead.

 _EMP!_ Amelia panics as hers and everybody else's aircrafts plummet from the sky. With the comms down she had no way of communicating with the others, so she couldn't tell if they were having any success in trying to restart their engines as well.

 _God freakin damnit, my engines won't start, and that ground is starting to look way too close._ Amelia mentally calculated how far out they were from the survival bunker, and guesstimated about maybe twenty miles or so. She then sets her plane into a steep dive before pulling up again slightly into a shallow glide.

 _Alright, this should cut down the distance fairly decently._ After locking the controls, she goes back to trying to cold start the engines again, even though she knew that it was probably in vain. As she went through the manual restart procedure, Amelia took a look around to try and locate the others. She only spotted a few following her in glide mode, the rest have disappeared. Behind them, a massive mushroom cloud silhouetted the few aircraft that she saw. Her eyes desperately searched for David's fighter, her anxiety put to rest as she spots him a hundred yards to her right.

As she looks ahead, she can make out a tall communications tower jutting out from the mountains several miles ahead of her.

 _That must be it._ Amelia thinks to herself. But her jet was too low to make it at this point, she was only a few hundred feet off of the tree tops. She waited until she was sure she got the most out of her jet, before yanking on the ejection lever.

Instantly her canopy blew open and several dozen pounds of liquid fuel rocketed her out of the plane and into the open sky. Another second later her chute deploys. As she looks around, she counts only four other parachutes floating down towards the forest below.

 _The others must have failed or jammed._ She thinks to herself. What a way to go. Surviving a nuclear attack only to die to faulty equipment. She looks around again to get her bearings. The nuclear winter had buried everything in snow, but the tower could be clearly seen in the distance, about a few miles out.

Her fellow pilots could be seen disappearing into the trees a few miles behind her as well, before her sight was blocked by the tree tops as well. The parachute of course had to get snagged thirty feet off the ground, so Amelia flips open a knife and cuts away at her lines, before slowly climbing the tree. In the distance she could see more mushroom clouds dotting the horizon, as hundreds of ICBMs fell all over the former U.S.

 _It really is the end of the world. Man its freezing out here. Thank god for insulated flight suits._ She thinks to herself. _Alright, the comms tower is about a few miles out, and it can be clearly seen, so no need to search for the others, they'll head for it as well. Then we can salvage this royal screw up of a situation._

The deep snow made any attempt at running or even jogging impossible, so Amelia slowly hit a slow marching rhythm, all the while humming her favorite songs to herself to keep her mind busy. If the EMP hadn't knocked out her smartphone she would have totally plugged in those earbuds by now. She was fairly certain that it could be repaired fairly easily once they got to the military bunker. She would be pissed if she couldn't, all her favorite albums were saved on it.

A funny thought entered her head as she trudged forward. She imagined herself around a campfire surrounded by other survivors, all dressed in ridiculous Mad Max style clothing, and she was playing the Star Wars theme on her guitar to them. Somebody asked why she was so insistent on playing songs all the time.

 _Keeping the culture alive, it would be an absolute shame if David Bowie music went extinct forever._ Amelia thought to herself. That and playing the guitar was one of the few things left to do in a world like this. A small, sad smile was on her face as her thoughts wandered to happier times.

An hour or so later, she hears voices to her left, who turn out to be the other four pilots, including David. But he had broken a leg after losing his grip and fell a few stories onto hard ice. After a quick session of exclaiming their happiness at her survival, and Amelia fussing over David, they trudge ever onward to the looming tower in the distance. But it was slow going , with two of them having to carry David, and their flight suits, although insulated, weren't meant for such long term exposure to the freezing elements, and the feeling quickly goes from discomfort to severe worry. A couple more hours out here, and they'll be frozen human popsicles.

Fortunately a nearby patrolling squad finds them, their bodies covered in a layer of snow, and one of the pilots was starting to suffer the onset of hyperthermia. The patrol leader was about to comment on their condition, but decided against it when it seemed pretty stupid to state the obvious. One of the patrol men leaned into his mike and spoke. Soon a snowmobile truck of sorts rumbled into view, and the quickly piled inside of it. Amelia passed out on the passenger seat, the warmth of the cabin interior too alluring to resist.

An eternity later, she awoke to find herself in a hospital bed of sorts.

"Hey, you feeling alright?"

Amelia turns her head to see David's weary face smiling at her. She returns the smile.

"Got this slight headache but I'm mostly fine." she said. "What's going to happen now?" David leans in.

"Only a few others turned up, apart for a couple of scientists it's just us four. Their planning on freezing us all right after the detonation of the bomb." he explains. David then gets up, and limps for the door. Before leaving, he turns his head. "You coming?" he asks, motioning towards the exit with his crutches. Amelia promptly crawls out of bed and follows David.

"So where we headed?" she asks.

"The control room, their watching the air battle live right now."

As they walk down the hallways, Amelia soaks in all the details. Concrete walls, fluorescent lights in the ceiling, and the dozens of metallic slide doors buried in the sides of the hallways. The occasional tremor indicating another nuclear bomb going off outside somewhere in the distance.

 _Definitely feels like a bunker._ She thinks to herself. _I wonder where this control room is._

As they round a corner, they find themselves looking at a massive open door, with the sign "Control Room" emblazoned on a sign above the opening.

Entering the room, they find themselves staring at hundreds of screens and the center of the far wall was dominated by a single massive flat screen tv. Amelia was awed by the size of this place, thing looked like it was straight out of some spy movie. In a few seats in the viewing booth sat the other survivors, and a few scientists milling about the computer terminals.

"This is it? Nobody else made it?" Amelia asked in shock. A short male scientist walks up to her.

"This is it. Unfortunately the majority had perished when trying to escape the blast. But most of the strike group got away when mountain ranges they had passed over protected them from the immediate after effects of the detonation." Nearby a technician waves to get the lead scientists attention.

"Sir, the bomb is in position." he reads out.

On the screen, a view of the bomb bay opening up was shown, the Mushroom Bomb silhouetted against the light coming from below it. Other screens show a ferocious air battle taking place all around the bomber, as it dodged and weaved through the chaos. Clamps released, and the bomb fell away, intent on delivering its payload of doom.

As it fell, the cameras show the surviving fighters turn and fly as fast as they could away from the impending apocalypse. But it was in vain.

Several minutes later, an absolutely blinding greenish white detonation fills the screens before they all went dark, the connection lost. Even when they were on the other side of the world, massive tremors shook the complex, and what structures that remained on the surface toppled to the ground. Another screen switched to an outside view after the shaking subsided, and what greeted their eyes what nothing but nightmarish. A satellite view showed a portion of the Earth the size of Australia being slowly blown out into space by a massive green mushroom cloud that looked like it was constantly spewing out death. The head scientist turned to his colleagues, who had been starting at the screens in disbelief. Murmurs rippled through the small crowd.

"Jesus Christ, I knew it was powerful, but not like this…"

"Looks like half the Earth is getting completely scorched…"

A stern look from the lead scientist silences the mutterings.

"Shut em off. It's time we head down to the cryo chambers." he orders. A heavy set man with glasses didn't move though, his mouth muttering quiet obscenities at what they had just witnessed. It took a hand on his shoulder to get him to snap out of it.

"Come on, let's go." She says. The man complies, walking out the door to follow the others. Amelia would have gladly joined the guy in his mental stupor at the situation, but she had been through too much, and the perceived destruction was just another burden she will have to carry for the rest of her life, even if she wasn't personally responsible for it. David limps up to her, a strained look on his face as he adjust his crutches to keep pace with her.

"This is it." He says slowly. Amelia sighs.

"Yeah, I guess I'll see you in a few thousand years." She half-heartedly jokes. David just shakes his head

 _We'll make things better, we have to._ She thinks to herself. From the moment Seattle was vaporized, to the destruction of half the planet, right up until she was laying inside a cryopod, it was this thought that persisted, and was last thing her mind was saying when the glass froze over in her pod's window.

 **Hey guys, this is my first attempt at writing a fanfic for adventure time, and I wanted to try something more original. Not many stories that I have seen go into detail about the Mushroom War, or just involve a bunch of sappy romance with vampires, etc, so instead of a vampire OC, we've got an F-15 pilot from the past. Anyways, I hope you guys liked this second chapter, and please do drop those reviews, and please, please critique anything I may have missed.**


	3. Chapter 3: Waking Up

" **-ailure in sector twelve. Power failure in sector twelve. Initiating emergency cryosleep procedure. Opening sleep pods."**

Lights. Flashing red lights and an electronic voice filters into the sleep addled mind of Amelia Walker. Fingers fumble to open the pod's lid. It is cold to the touch. A thick icy fog rolls out and onto the floor, quickly followed by a pair of bare feet. The floor felt gritty, and everything was covered in a layer of dust.

 _Oh god, my heeeaad…_ Amelia mentally moans. _Where the aspirin at?_ She slowly traverses the small room, leaving behind footprints in the grime. She sneezes as the dust begins to fly around, disturbed after an eon of gathering in the corners. _Uh, where's the light switch?_ She thinks as she fumbles around in the low light. Her hand catches onto a protrusion on the wall. _Here we go._

The lights in the ceiling fail to come on.

"Oh come on… Where the hell is the flashlight?" After a bit more searching, she finds the flashlight in a nearby cabinet, the batteries nearly drained after sitting in there for so long. But it was enough to find the stash of batteries in another drawer, and she quickly replaces the half dead ones. "Now we're talking." She mutters. Finding some spare uniforms to put on, she explores a bit more around the room. Nothing really worked without power though, so accessing the computer terminals is out of the picture for now. Thank god the doors still have power though. She hits the release button. The door slides halfway up before jamming in place with a loud whine. _Well, half working, at any rate._ She rolls under the door into the empty hallway. The place was as dark and silent as a tomb, emergency red lighting showing up occasionally down the passageway marking more entrances to rooms. And her occasional sneezing echoing down the empty passageways.

Plip, plip, plip. Water was leaking in several places, breaking the dark silence. Amelia carefully walks down the hallway, avoiding a particularly large puddle. _What the hell happened to this place? I guess this thing wasn't rated to last to two thousand years. Now where are the rest of the cryopods?_ She comes to the first door, which had been wrenched open by somebody else a long time ago. An identical room to hers is seen, the sleep pod prominently taking up the center. _Wait, somethings wrong._ The pods control panel is flashing red, but what reads out instead stops her heart. A little heart symbol with a flat line next to it. Amelia runs over to the viewing panel in panic.

"Nononononono!"

 **Occupant: John Kinder**

 **Status: Deceased**

A gruesome sight meets her eyes as she wipes away at the grime on the pod's window, and she dry heaves onto the floor at the sight of a shriveled, sunken face that looked like it was straight out of _The Last Crusade_. After picking herself off of the ground, she suddenly had a terrible thought. _Oh my God, David!_ Amelia rushes out of the room, frantically opening each and every door within the hallway she can find. She had gone to sleep before David had, so she had no idea which specific room he was in. A little voice in her head said it seemed a little selfish to be only concerned about him only, but she ignores it.

Every room she breaks into reveals more bodies, more reminders of humanity's failure. Some died buried in rubble, the ceiling having been caved in long ago, others to malfunctions, trapped within their pods, unable to break free. Those were the ones that disturbed her the most, faces locked in agony, shriveled hands leaving clawed scratch marks on the glass panes. Amelia desperately hopes not to find David in such a condition. Her mind probably wouldn't be able to take it.

Twelve rooms later, she comes across a half open door. Heart beating wildly, she pries open the door, and looks inside, hoping against hope that should would find him in here alive. She blinks. The pod was empty! She rushes around the room, desperately trying to find any trace, any clue of where he might have gone. There! A note on taped to the wall. It looked old and worn. Amelia snatches it off and begins to quickly read the words on it.

 _If you find this message, please be sure to deliver to Amelia. If you're dead, sorry wrong number._

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _Well, I've apparently had a malfunction with the pod. Several days ago I awoke to a crumbling survival bunker, and the computer said I had slept for nearly 950 years! How about that? But I guess this place wasn't rated for the two thousand years or so that we were promised. Anyways, I tried to wake the rest of you guys up, but I couldn't even get the doors open, they were locked until another thousand years have passed. I've tried everything short of actually blowing off the doors, but they refused to budge. I couldn't wake the rest of you guys up without risking your death. It breaks my heart that I would never be able to see you again. In a few more days I'll be heading out into the open world. It looks amazing out in the open, mother nature really did a good job cleaning up our mistakes. Fields of green everywhere and the bluest sky you can imagine! I plan on leaving by the time this message is written, see what I can do with the rest of my life on this planet. I'll be heading west somewhere, it looked like a good place to start. I hope that you'll find what I would have left behind by the time you read this letter. It's gonna have to last a thousand years for you to see it though, so I guess I'll have to start soon!_

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _It's going to be a very lonely world out there without you, but we'll have to persevere. We have to._

 _I love you._

 _~David_

 _Ps- If you find my skeleton, please don't step on my skull._

Amelia hadn't realized she was crying on the floor until much later.

 _Come on, pull yourself together, you can't give up now!_ She mentally yells.

 _Okay, just give me a few more minutes… just want to cry a bit more…_ The other side of her mind meekly says. But she ignore the thought and shakily gets up anyways. _Come on, priorities straight, get your head in the game._ First thing was to find a way to bring the power back online. She slaps in a new rack of batteries into the flashlight and heads for the generator room. Along the way she mentally notes where each individual room was and what was in them. Food storage was blocked off by a bit of rubble, but she can clear it away later. Control room was completely totaled though, a massive gaping hole leading out into the open world was left in it's place. _I wonder what did that?_

Everything seemed relatively intact though, so Amelia headed down to the reactor room to see what was blocking off the power to the rest of the place. A few floors later, she finds the massive doors that lead into the reactor room. On the way she had snatched up a geiger counter to make sure no radiation had been leaking from the place, and amazingly, there was none. She quickly spots the problem, a severed power line that lead to the rest of the facility was hanging off the wall.

 _Geez, thing looks like something try to chew on it for a while._ She thinks to herself. _Now where are those spare repair kits?_ Amelia spends the next hour fixing up the place and repairing what she can with her basic knowledge in engineering. A few hours and a pile of spare parts later and Amelia is rewarded with artificial light. A mechanical whine grows as what's left of the facility lights up for the first time in a long time.

"Ha ha, YES!" Amelia crows out to nobody in particular. Her depressing mood lifts along with the darkness. For the next few hours she cleares debris from hallways, salvages equipment and supplies, and sets up a temporary home in one of the office rooms. Another whole hour is devoted to burying the remains of the bodies outside in the grass. She marvels at the scenery the first time she stepped outside, not a single evidence of the war she had left behind remained, instead a rolling hillside of grass extended to the horizon, with the occasional forest and mountain breaking the edge. _Man, the sky really is super blue._ She thinks to herself.

Some time later as she mixes a bag of MRE's, she sits down in front of a terminal that looked to be in good condition, and pushes the power button. The screen hums to life. A grin splits her face after hearing the old microsoft tune after a thousand years of being asleep.

"Alright computer, let's see how long ago David had awoken from his pod…" she mutters. _Hopefully it wasn't too long ago… Maybe I can still find him._ _Yeah right, with my luck that number is gonna be in the hundreds._ Instead she gets fifty. The number flashes on screen, like it was mocking her. She bangs the terminal in frustration, spilling some of the MRE's onto the floor. _Fifty years!_ It was as if the universe was mocking her. Fifty years was short enough to give her hope, but yet at the same time he was going to be real old, and something probably ended up killing him before she even woke up.

Having gone through all her tears earlier, all she felt now was hollowness. She didn't dare get her hopes up, but she swore she would at least try and find him, or whatever's left of him. But first things first. She mentally checks off what's working and not working. Lights for the most part are fine, but the elevator is screwed. Environmental control threw in the towel around the same time that David woke up. So that's fifty years of decay clinging to the place. Some of the non military vehicles are gonna have a rough time trying to just function in the first place. But the military grade stuff were built to last, and Amelia had set her sights on a particular F-16.

It was currently sitting in the underground hangar, and was the only vehicle that wasn't crushed, or so corroded that the wings would just fall right off. She rips off the plastic covering on it, and meticulously runs a hand over its exterior, as if she was caressing a long lost lover. David may be gone but her love for flying sure is not. A few parts were in dire need of replacement however, and it was going to take at least a week to get the thing in flying condition, but she was confident it could be done.

For the next two days she cannibalized spare parts from other vehicles, replacement tires for the old, rotted ones. A revamped guidance system, and a complete cleanup of the interior later, and the thing looked to be in near perfect condition by the third day. But then Murphy's law kicked in.

Some time on her fourth day she was pulling out some wires that needed fixing when a slight tremor shook the abandoned base. Amelia cautiously looks around, wondering what that was. Dismissing it after a few seconds as a small earthquake, she returns back to her work. But then the ground shook again, and this time it was accompanied by an unearthly screech. She scrambles backwards in terror and makes a run for the entrance to the hangar. She didn't know what in the nine hells made that noise, but her imagination certainly filled it in for her. Images of radioactive sludge monsters leftover from the nuclear war flash through her head.

The floor shakes violently again just as she reaches the weapons locker. _Sounds like something real big and mean is trying to get inside!_ She frantically rummages through the supply crates and arms herself with an M-16. As she rushes back out into the hallway a massive BOOM shakes the underground base again, before a large section of the ceiling just caves in. Amelia is thrown off her feet as a big _something_ jumps through the hole and lands onto the pile of rubble, the floor plates buckling under the immense pressure.

She stares in shock as a _thing_ slowly crawls out of the cloud of dust. Red scales scrape along the walls while spiked tentacles slither here and there, searching for prey. In the center a massive blob is seen being dragged along, a gaping tooth filled maw filling her ears with another inhuman scream. As it begins to close in on her, Amelia roars out her defiance and unleashes a storm of bullets straight into the monster… which do nothing at all. She dives for cover as the rounds ricochet off of the scales and bounce around the passageway.

 _Screw this!_ She thinks. _Time to go!_ But before she gets a chance to even make a run for it a tentacle latches onto her ankles and drags her backwards, straight for its gaping maw. As it dangles her over it's mouth, she quickly unloads the entire magazine straight down the things throat. It roars in pain as it tosses Amelia like a rag doll down the hallway. She slams into the floor, blood pouring down her face. As the monster flails about in pain she picks herself up off the ground and limps for the hangar. Behind her she can hear the monster flailing about as it tries to catch her.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck." Amelia crashes through the doors and into open space. She trips and falls, and as she scrambles to get back on her feet the doors behind her buckle under a massive hit. "FuckfuckfuckFUCK!" She yells as she slaps a helmet onto her face. She clambers up the side of the F-16 she had been working on for the past two days. Fingers dance over the controls, turning on the jet engines. The noise drowns out the roars of the monster, filling Amelia with a sense of comfort as her hands once again gripped the flight stick.

 _Please be in all that is holy don't let this thing blow up in my face._ As she throttles down the runway the doors behind her explode into pieces, the massive red tentacle blob thing rushing straight for her. Amelia pours on the throttle in response. The runway is quickly replaced with a clear blue sky, the jet screaming away from the cave entrance she had left behind. The monster sits on the edge howling, angry that it's prey got away.

Amelia sinks into her seat in relief, a long, exaggerated groan emanating from her mouth. Nothing felt broken to her, but she was most definitely going to be feeling it all in the morning. She takes a look around the landscape, admiring the rolling hills of green and forestry, trying to get her bearings as to where she was at. **BANG.** Amelia is startled out of her thoughts as her jet began to make some really worrying sounds. A look behind her confirms her fears as she spots a trail of dark smoke spewing out from the back engine, accompanied by the rapidly dropping numbers on the altimeter.

 _Okay, time to go!_ She yanks on the ejection handle. Nothing happens. She frantically pulls it again. Nothing. _I fucking knew I should have fixed this thing first!_ She grabs the flight stick and steadies her aircraft into a shallow dive. This was going to take all of her skill to land this thing and then some, fighter aircrafts were not meant for gliding. Sweat beads down her forehead as she watches as the altimeter spin closer and closer to zero. Then the ground filled her view and there was nothing but blackness.


	4. Chapter 4: Outta Time

"Yo Jake, you sure there's a dungeon entrance around here?"

Jake sniffs the air a bit more before grumbling to himself as he slumps onto the grass, defeated. Finn looks at him questionly.

"I don't we're ever gonna find it Jake."

He rolls over to face Finn.

"Could've sworn there was an entrance to one right here. But now it seems to have up and vanished."

"This sucks dinguses."

"Yeah." Finn sits down next to Jake.

"Hey Finn, do you hear anything weird?"

The human boy listens hard.

"Nope, nothing why?" Jake suddenly stands up and enlarges his ears, knocking Finn over in the process. "Whoa, what the what man?" An outstretched yellow finger shushes him.

"Quiet, I hear something approaching from the east somewhere. It's making the strangest whining noise I've ever heard…"

Finn strains his ears, listening for anything out of place. At first it's as soft as a whisper, a silvery sort of noise floating on the breeze. But it quickly intensifies into a screech.

"Whoa, look up there man!" Jake points a finger straight up into the sky, a small grey object streaking it's way across the blue like a hot knife through butter, a dark smoky trail smearing the scenery behind it. It disappears over a tall hill before the pair hear a series of chaotic sounds indicating its return to earth. The two look at each other before scrambling to take a look. Jake is the first to crest the hilltop.

"Would ya look at that! It's a plane of some sort!" Finn runs up behind him.

"Whoa! That's mathematical! Hey wait, aren't these things supposed to be flown by pilots?" A second lapses between the pair before the thought catches up to them.

"THE PILOT!"

Jake quickly stretches Finn and himself over to the crash site, all the while muttering to himself.

"Oh man oh man, please tell me this isn't one of princess Bubblegum's experiments."

"Jake! I can kinda see somebody is in there! But there's too much smoke and this dang- whoop!" Finn steps back as Jake stretches out his hand and pops the canopy open, releasing a billowing cloud of noxious fumes into the air. Gagging on the smoke, he reaches inside the cockpit, pulling out a helmeted figure, the body fully covered in a jumpsuit of some kind.

As he pulls the mystery pilot away from the crash site, the helmet slides off, nestling itself into the grass. Finn is too busy dragging the body to look, but Jake notices it first.

"Oh my glob."

Finn looks to Jake. "What is it bro?"

"Look at her face!"

Finn obliges, and his brain does an immediate double take. Peach colored skin, hair that bordered between light brown and amber, and a distinctively feminine face? There was no mistaking now what Finn was looking at.

"Bro, I think we just found another human."

This was nothing new, especially after finding an island populated by thousands of his kind, but finding one in the land of Ooo was even rarer. The only one he's ever found in the land of magic and candy was Susan strong, but she was heavily augmented by the time he found her, more genetic mutations than human. Then there was also Beth, but she hadn't even originated from Ooo, being dragged out of time from the ancient past.

So seeing a completely normal human being falling from the sky onto the land of Ooo was certainly new to the pair.

As they contemplated the pilot, the jet suddenly bursts into flames, huge cascades of sparks jetting out of the cockpit, the ammunition cooking off like firecrackers. The heat roils over Finn like a hot blanket fresh out of a dryer.

"Oh my glob PUT IT OUT!"

Jake hastily stretches over to a nearby lake and sucks up its contents, before promptly spewing it all over the burning wreck. The flames, starved of oxygen, were quickly snuffed out. The cockpit was now utterly ruined.

"Well, what do we do now Finn?" They both look to the unconscious figure on the grass.

"We'll take Amelia to the Candy Kingdom, Nurse Poundcake should be able to help her recover."

"Alright Finn, sounds like a hey wait a second, how do you know her name?"

Finn gives Jake a confused look.

"That's what it says on her name tag, on her chest."

"Oh. Ha, my bad." Jake looks to the jet. "Should we take that with us as well?"

"Sure, maybe Princess Bubblegum can do her sciency stuff and figure out where exactly this plane came from! And once we do, you know what comes after that?"

A big smile grows on the duo.

"Aaaaadventure Time!"

 _Ouuuch._ Once again, lights and noise break through the darkness, but they also bring something new with it.

A big painful headache.

Amelia cracks open her eyes a tiny bit, ignoring the dancing porcupine in her head while staying completely silent. Training has taught her that ten seconds of observation while awakening in an unknown place could save her life. And so she observes.

The first thing she noticed was the overbearing amount of pink on the walls. So much pink. _Smells really sweet to, like if somebody has been chewing bubblegum right next to me._

"You can stop fake sleeping now, the monitors clearly show you're now awake."

 _Ah piss. So much for that._ Amelia obliges, and slowly turns her head to see where the voice had originated from, only to immediately doubt her sanity. She blinks, but the visage remains the same.

 _Must have hit my head harder then I've thought._ She ruefully thinks.

Staring straight back at her was a humanoid female figure that was completely pink, and upon a more scrutinizing look confirmed that it was no paint job. And it smelled a LOT like bubblegum. Suddenly to the left of the pink figure a yellow dog of an unknown breed popped up with a big smile. And it was standing, not awkwardly like the show dogs from some circus, but truly standing, as naturally as a bird would fly.

And then it spoke.

"Hey there, you feeling alright?"

Amelia promptly passed out again.

"Look what you've gone and done Jake!"

As Princess Bubblegum began to berate Jake for his lack of subtlety, Finn silently stared at Amelia. She had been sleeping for the past two days, and just when they thought they were going to get answers Jake had gone and sent her right back into the oblivion. Nurse Poundcake appeared to his left, a concerned expression on her face. Finn turns to her.

"How's she doing Nurse?"

Nurse Poundcakes hrrms for a moment.

"Her vital signs have been stable for the past two days now, but that nasty concussion should take a few more days to heal. Human anatomy is something I'm not too well practiced in, so I did the best I could."

Finn nods along and thanks her for her help. Then he idles over to Princess Bubblegum, who had just finished giving Jake a good dressing down.

"Oh hey Finn, you need something?"

"Yeah, um, have you figured out anything regarding Amelia or the plane?"

"Yeah, where exactly did it come from?" Jake asks. "Do you think the island full of humans have to do something with it?"

Princess Bubblegum shakes her head.

"Follow me, oh, and please try not to touch anything."

She leads the pair down into her laboratories. Upon reaching the deepest levels, she unlocks a massive door and the trio enters the massive chambers. Finn's eyes widen in surprise.

"Whoa…"

"Dang Princess, you've stockpiled quite the collection down here!" Jake exclaims.

Surrounding them in a room the size of a large hangar were dozens of rusting artifacts hanging from the ceiling, on shelves, or sitting on pedestals, each one having a dedicated computer screen in front of them. Some Finn recognized from his adventures out in the wilds, others, well, not so much. A mangled car here, computer parts there, and everything else inbetween.

"Hehe, look at me!" Finn turns to see Jake wearing a helmet that looked like it had seen better days. Bubblegum was not amused.

"Jake! What did I say about touching my stuff?"

"Ok ok." He stretches the helmet back into its stand. "Oh hey, that's the plane we found!"

Sitting in the middle was the wreck he and Jake had recovered, surrounded by tools and gadgets. A scanner hovered constantly around it like a bee on a flower, it's eye constantly analyzing the surface. One panel had been cut open, and the interior was in the process of being picked apart by Princess Bubblegum's meticulous fingers, wires and engine components exposed for the first time since their assemblage in a factory. She walks up to the computer in front of the display and starts scrolling down the screen.

"I have studied this particular aircraft for the past two days now, and here's what I've got so far. Despite the crash it had sustained its still in remarkable shape, well, except for the cockpit, that's been completely totaled."

Finn rubs his neck. "Yeah, the thing just kinda burst into flames. Sorry about that."

Princess Bubblegum waves it off.

"It's fine, I'm just grateful that it didn't just explode into a million pieces upon impact. Planes tend to that when they crash."

"Yeah… heheh." Jake murmurs.

"Anyways, I've managed to link this specific design to others I've found out in the wilds, but compared to those rusting hulks this piece of machinery is in remarkable shape, barely any corrosion on it at all. But carbon dating has put it to be over a thousand years old. Puzzling, since no vehicle that old should have any right being this well kept."

Finn scratches his head in confusion.

"So how did keep like this for so long?"

Princess Bubblegum taps away at the keyboard a bit more.

"I have a few theories, but without more solid information all I can really do is guess. Hopefully Amelia should have all the answers when she wakes up. Oh, and guys, don't do anything drastic when she does wake up. Lookin at you Jake."

"Yeah yeah, mmmrpgm."

Finn pokes a bit at the plane.

"How does it fly? I don't see any propellers, does it use magic to hover?"

In response the princess commands the scanner bot to project a 3D holograph of the engine.

"Even though the engine had sustained some damage it was quite simple to make out that it's a jet aircraft. Instead of using propellers to fly, it instead sucks in air and fuel into a chamber, where the mixture is then ignited, with the resulting superheated gas expelled out… the…" Bubblegum stops her explanation, the looks of two dumbfounded expressions gazing at her in confusion.

"Wha?" Asks Jake.

Bubblegum mentally sighs. "It's basically a rocket plane."

"Oooh, ok."

"But did you find out where it came from?" Asks Finn.

"Well," she says as she roots around a pile of metal parts, "that's the million dollar question now, isn't it? I don't know where it's exactly from, but I do know who made them at least."

"Really? Who?" They both ask at the same time.

"Jinx!"

Bubblegum holds up a small plaque from the pile.

" _Lockheed Martin Productions."_ Jake read out loud. "Hey Finn! Your dad's name was Martin right? Maybe he's related to all this somehow."

Finn nodded. "Maybe, I mean, I've seen him cobble together a rocket from spare parts before, so maybe he does have something to do with this. Although he never mentioned having Lockheed as a name."

Princess Bubblegum shook her head.

"From what I have entailed Finn, your father is probably not even past his late fifties, so unless your dad is somehow a thousand years old, this aircraft was probably designed and built by a different person going by the same name. But they've probably been a corpse for a long time by now, so that's a dead end."

"Oh." Finn says.

"So what now princess?" Jake asks.

Bubblegum begins shutting down the computer.

"For now we'll just have to wait for Amelia to wake up and fill in the rest, right?" She says. But then an ominous click echoes across the room, a feminine voice emanating from the open entrance to the lab. And anybody who's ever watched an action film knows what kind of sound comes from.

"Guess you guys don't have to wait for long anymore."


	5. Chapter 5: Talking Bananas

Amelia was in a panic. She had awoken to the sight of talking candy and dogs. After passing out again, she had subconsciously written all away as some kind of fever dream, and that death would soon come for her. Lights and sounds once again permeate through her head, piercing through the fog of sleep like a laser through the night. _Did I die? Am I in heaven?_ She looks around. Still the pink walls stare back at her. _Nope, definitely not heaven._ _Piss._ This time however nobody else was in the room though. Her clothes were piled neatly to the side on a gurney, along with a glass of water. She down the cup down in one swig. _God I'm dehydrated._ Her stomach growls. _And food. Definitely need food too._

She crawls out of the bed, her body covered in a long hospital gown. Looking in a mirror she notices a stitching across her forehead, only about a inch long. "Definitely hit my head a bit too hard there, eh?" she mutters.

 _But who stitched me up? Guess it's time for a little exploration._ Grabbing her jumpsuit, she notices the clean smell coming off of it, all the sweat and stains removed. _How nice of them._ Her fears of being some kind of prisoner slightly lessened, she dons her uniform and checks her pockets for anything useful. She pulls out one dead smartphone, a few pieces of lint and nothing else. But something important was missing.

 _Ah shit, they took my sidearm. Guess my hosts aren't that stupid. Still, pretty dumb for not locking me in. Either these people are screwing with me, or they are really that naive. But better safe than sorry, and I'll feel better with a weapon in hand._

Amelia cautiously pokes her head out into the hallway to see two talking bananas arguing about their respective heights.

"I'm taller than you!"

"No I'm taller than you!"

"I said I'm taller first, therefor I'm the tallest."

"That's not how it works!"

"Yes it does."

"Hey, isn't that the human we're supposed to be guarding?"

They turn to the sight of a gawking Amelia, and if she could, her jaw would have hit the floor. And probably would have smashed through to the floors below as well.

 _What kind of post apocalypse is this?_

One of the banana guards points his spear at her. Puffing up his chest, he utters his next words in his most threatening voice.

It came out as a squeak.

"You're not allowed out here! Return to your room!"

Amelia just stares, trying hard not to laugh. Seeing how his _serious_ voice didn't work, he looks to his partner, who nudges him.

" _You forgot to say the magic word."_ He whispers.

"Oh right! Ahem, you're not allowed out here human! Return to your room!"

Silence. His partner nudges him again.

"Please."

While this was going on a plan was beginning to churn in Amelia's head. She needed to collect the rest of her belongings, but she knows that without a way to unlock the doors in the hallway she was sunk. Fortunately a set of keys were hanging from one of the banana guards hips, or at least where she assumes their hips would be. She couldn't really tell.

She watches as they both start arguing about the best way to ask her to return back inside the room. _Guess these guys aren't that bright. That should make this a lot easier._

"Ahem." The two guards turn towards her. "How about this, if you guys turn around and face the wall, I'll be able to tell you which one is taller than the other."

The two guards look to each other. Frantic whispers are exchanged as Amelia patiently waits for their decision. One of them turns to her after they finished up their deliberation.

"Ahem, we will do so, on the one condition that you shall return to your room after it's done!"

Amelia nods her head.

"Alright boys, face the wall."

 _Are they even guys? Or a girl? It's kinda hard to tell._

 _Stahp it brain. No weird thoughts while escaping._

As the guards faced the wall together, Amelia quickly filches the keys from the banana guard.

"Be right back, I'm going to get a ruler from one of these rooms, so hang tight!"

"Ok, but hurry up! I need solid proof that I'm taller then this midget of a banana!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

As the two once again dissolve into muffled arguments, Amelia slunk away, and quickly entered the first room she came across. She tries the handle. It's unlocked. She sneaks inside, quietly laughing all the while.

 _If the rest of the populace is like this, I'll have no trouble getting out of this place. Hell, I could probably grab some supplies on the way out as well. But let's get some answers first._

As she goes room to room, she starts to notice some key details about each one. Some were for storing things, a few others filled to the ceiling with advanced scientific equipment, mathematical equations and notes taped the walls.

 _Guess somebody isn't a complete moron. I'll have to be more careful then._

There was one detail that did not go unnoticed however. The lack of any windows. Amelia chalks this up to being below ground. Finally, at the fifth room she enters, she spies what's she's looking for on a center table. The M1911 lay in pieces, dissected for study. Amelia scoops up the largest one and gets to work reassembling the weapon.

Forty seconds later and she racks the slide and checks the chamber. With that done she slides in a magazine and racks the slide again.

 _Eleven shots. Guess I'll have to keep this for emergencies only._

She peeks outside again to see the two guards still standing next to each other, patiently facing the wall. Looking to her right she spies an open doorway with a sign above it reading **Lower Level Laboratories** _._

 _Hmm, I wonder what's down there…_

The situation was tense to say the least. Finn, Jake and Princess Bubblegum were stuck on one side while the unknown female human was blocking the only way out on the other side of the room. Who also happened to be pointing a loaded gun in their direction. Finn quickly walks in front of the princess, protecting her body with his.

"If you're thinking of hurting her, you have another thing coming for you lady!" He says defiantly.

Bubblegum sighs. "Finn, it's fine, I got this." She says while sidestepping around Finn. She looks to the other human, hands held up.

"Hi, I'm Princess Bubblegum of the Candy Kingdom, and we wish you no ill intentions. We rescued you from the crash you were in, and I'm sure you have plenty of questions right now, so if you'd be so kind as to put away your weapon we can sort this out like civilized people."

Amelia stares at her for a few seconds, a calculating gaze sizing her up. Then, after a long moment of tense silence she safes the handgun and slides it back into her side holster. A hand is held out.

"Lieutenant Amelia Walker, United States Air Force, Forty Second squadron, at your service." Amelia knows that they probably have no idea as to what her statement actually refers to, but she said it as more of a way of solidifying her identity in this crazy world that she ended up in, to remind herself of who she was and where she came from.

Bubblegum tentatively takes the held out hand and politely shakes it.

"Sorry 'bout holding you and your friends at gunpoint, I just needed to make sure that you guys weren't a threat."

Finn feels slightly offended. "Hey! I'm pretty threatening when I want to be!"

Amelia inwardly rolls her eyes. "Yeah ok. Anyways, first things first. What are you? How the hell did food and animals gain sentience? Are you made of actual gum? And why does this castle look like some kinda Hansel and Gretel witch house 2.0? And what's up with this massive room of stuff?"

"Whoa, that's a lot of questions. Ok, first off, me and many of my citizens are of candy. My core essence is bubblegum. The rest of the candy people I created. And for this room, this laboratory is where I keep all the pre-war technology I have scavenged from the earth."

Amelia starts to slowly walk around the lab, a slight nostalgic tone permeating through her voice as she gazed around at the rusting relics. "There's so many things here that I recognize, and- hey wait second, is that my jet? How'd that get here?"

Amelia walks over to the dissected wreck, her heart sinking at the sight of the sorry state it was in. A lot of work and love went into that little jet.

"Okay, I think you should start from the beginning."

Bubblegum lays her hand on Finn and Jake. "These two are Finn and Jake, they were the ones that pulled you from the crash site." Finn and Jake both wave a hand at her.

"Hey."

"Whaddup."

"Anyways, after your crash Jake managed to salvage your plane where I have been analyzing it for the past two days." Amelia suddenly makes a slicing motion through the air with her hand, interrupting Bubblegum.

"Waitwaitwaitwaitwait. I was out for two days?!"

Bubblegum checks her tablet. "Yup, two days and three hours. After that, well," she gestures around the room, "you know the rest."

Amelia rubs the back of her neck. "So uh, what now?"

"Well, I was hoping you could tell us where you're from, and how exactly you ended up in the land of Ooo."

Amelia's face wrinkles in confusion at the name. "I'm sorry, Ooo?"

"Yes, Ooo is the name of the continent we live in."

"Oh ok, well, this is going to be one long story so I suggest that we get comfortable first."

As the group sit down at a nearby work table, the sound of running echoes down the lab from the entrance. A familiar red and white striped round face wearing a coat tail suit rushes into the lab panting.

"Princess, the human has escaped and- oh my glob there she is! Grab her guards!" Behind Peppermint Butler a gaggle of banana guards start to rush into the room, prompting Amelia to quickly put her hand to her gun. Princess Bubblegum quickly stands up from the table.

"Stop! Peppermint Butler, everything is fine, there's no need for this. Call off the guards."

"Are you sure princess?" he asks while casting a wary eye at Amelia.

"Yes please, you're interrupting a very important meeting."

"Oh, ok. Well, if you need me, just give me a call Princess."

As Peppermint Butler shoos the guards out the door, Bubblegum sinks back into her seat next to Finn and Jake, the latter having morphed himself and Finn a couch to sit on. Jake offers Amelia a spot too but she declines, content with plastic chair she's in.

"Sorry about that, Peppermint Butler is a close adviser of mine, so he means well. Oh, by the way, would like any refreshments? I can have something delivered down here while you tell us your story."

Amelia's stomach gives away the answer, as a low growling noise emanates from under the table. She gives Bubblegum a sheepish look.

"I think I'm going to need a bit more then just refreshments."

"Gotcha. Peppermint Butler!"

The sound of running echoes down the room again. "Yes Princess?"

"Bring us some tea and a couple of sandwiches for our guest here."

"Right away." He replies as heads back up the stairs. As the sounds of his footsteps fade away, Amelia adjusts her posture as she looks at the three.

"Right, guess I'll start from the beginning. But first, how much do you know about pre-war society?"

Princess Bubblegum hmm a bit. "Not much. The most that we do know of is that a cataclysmic war devastated the planet. I was born sometime shortly after it's end, so I don't know much about pre-war society apart from the few snippets I was able to divulge from the ruins. And the war itself, well, we've taken to calling it the Mushroom War."

"Because of the mushroom clouds…" Amelia muttered.

"I'm sorry, what?"

Amelia looks up, a tired expression clinging to her face. "World War Three. That's what we called it."

"World War Three? So your telling us that there were more then just one world war? The entire world at war, I'm getting this right?"

Amelia sighs. "Humanity has never been the best at getting along with each other. Competing ideologies eventually tore us apart."

As she spoke more and more of the history of what had happened over a thousand years ago in great detail, the small audience that she had in front of her were completely enraptured. Amelia talked about when and where she had been born, places she has been and the eventual lead up to the war that ended the world.

"We were a proud race. A proud and arrogant race that never saw where our path was leading towards. Before our fall from grace we were literally reaching for the stars. Cities that stretched from horizon to horizon. Nations that controlled entire continents. And an interconnected global economy that churned out currency like rain falling from the sky."

Amelia pauses for a second, taking a deep breath.

"In the center of it all was the United States of America. At the time it was the most powerful nation in the world, and had built itself an empire to surpass every other in human history. Well, most empires, the Romans still hold on to a few records. But America wasn't an empire in the traditional sense. There was no emperor, but instead a democratically elected president, along with other members of the government to run the place. And instead of creating an empire off of conquering other nations, it instead influenced the world by wielding immense diplomatic powers that come from having the largest economy and military in the world. But all things had to come to an end, and it all started with some tiny hermit kingdom on the opposite side of the world…"

* * *

Authors Notes: Thanks for reading this! If you've made it this far, to know that I plan to continue this series, so any support you guys give will be greatly appreciated! Any critiques or things to comment on please, drop 'em in the reviews! I make sure to read any and all reviews that come my way, and to change/edit things within my story if something is out of place! Until then, I'll see you all in the next chapter!


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